How to Create a State-of-the-Art Home Gym

Getting to the gym can be one of the most difficult exercises of your day – any excuse not to go usually seems good enough. If you have room in your house or are renovating to increase space, you could consider creating own home gym. With gym membership fees on the rise and our busy lifestyles giving us little time to get away and work out, installing a gym at home wipes out all of our excuses. After all, it is open 24 hours, seven days a week.

There have been brilliant advancements in technology over the past decade which have signalled the end of the old treadmill-in-the-spare-room stereotype we've come to associate with home gyms.

“There are plenty of new and exciting equipment advancements in the fitness marketplace at the moment,” says Amanda Boyle, Head of Education for the Power Plate Institute of Australia and International Master Trainer.

“The home gym no longer needs to be a room full of outdated home-shopping channel purchases. There are plenty of ways to make a home gym into a room you want to spend time in.”

So where do you begin?

“One of the first things I would consider is what kinds of exercise you enjoy and tailor your home gym equipment to these products,” says Boyle. “Ultimately you will use what you enjoy rather than what you feel you should be using. Don’t compromise on price either, because if it is cheap and nasty you’ll only be wishing you’d gone with the more expensive, better made product.”

“Also be sure to do your research and buy quality, research-accredited equipment. This ensures that your home gym will last for years rather than just a couple of months.”

“I’d always start my home gym with a Power Plate® machine,” says Boyle. “Power Plate equipment uses the principles of Acceleration Training to accelerate your workout by contracting the muscles between 25 and 50 times each second. A Power Plate machine is a great base product as it can be used for all four components of health & fitness – Flexibility & Mobility, Strength & Toning, Cardiovascular, and Recovery - whereas a treadmill, for example, can only be used for walking and running.”

While Vibration Training has been around since the 1960s, the Power Plate machine has been continuously improved and reviewed to create the luxury consumer product it is today.

“Power Plate machines are a favourite in the homes of celebrities such as Elle MacPherson, Dannii Minogue, Courteney Cox, Claudia Schiffer and many more,” says Boyle. “They are also used by a lot of elite athletes to keep them in peak condition – think PGA Golfers and World Cup football teams.”

Boyle recommends using the Power Plate machine as a base product and purchasing a few additional aids to give you plenty of variety. Purchasing a product like the freeFORM Board (www.freeformboard.com) is a great way to expand on the workout you’re already getting from the Power Plate machine and also build on flexibility and stability. The freeFORM Board uses principles of functional movement to provide a simple and natural extension of the body and helping to develop functional core strength, mobility, balance, flexibility, agility, and endurance.

But what about cost? Boyle suggests that a good home gym should cost you as much as a car – from around $10,000. “In the case of home fitness, you get what you pay for. You want to create your home gym to last and to become a place you enjoy spending time. Install a television and DVD player in the room so that you can work to set DVD routines if you want to, and make sure you have a great sound system to keep you motivated!”